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Visit from Judge Thapar

September 28, 2023 | Media

Cistercian was greatly honored today to have Judge Amul Thapar, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge, speak to the juniors and seniors. The judge spoke frankly about his role on the bench of the nation’s second highest court, the legislative process, constitutional interpretation, the life of public service, and his conversion to Catholicism. He also offered some great advice to our students as they seek their true path in life. Our upperclassmen asked many thoughtful questions, and the judge addressed them all with refreshing candor. Thanks so much to Ellen and Steve Rasch ’80 for making this event possible, and abundant thanks also to Judge Thapar for taking time from his busy schedule to visit Cistercian.

Hawk Happenings

Summer Programs 2025

Summer Programs have started at Cistercian! Sports Camps, Rec Camps, Academic Classes, and much more are designed to support the boys’ development as a whole person during the summer vacation.

Summer Programs at Cistercian

Summer Programs at Cistercian are more than books and sports; it’s also board games with monks. Fr. Philip joins the fun in “Board (not Bored) Games,” one of many classes offered June 9–27. Math, rec camp, and more still open for registration

Quiz Bowl

Cistercian’s Middle School Quiz Bowl team traveled to Chicago for the National Quiz Bowl Championship and finished tied for 13 out of 160 teams. Congratulations Hawks!

Experience Cistercian

Publications

Thy Kingdom Come

The more I reflect on the petitions of the Our Father, the more I’m convinced that I have no idea what I’m praying when I mumble those words multiple times every day.

The current object of my loving mystification is “Thy kingdom come.” In an effort to be slightly less intimidated by this vast and marvelous petition, I will arrange my musings as responses to the time-honored journalistic questions.

Lessons learned in a monastery

One of the most important rooms in a monastery, after the church, is the chapter room. This is the place where monks meet to do various things as a community: hear an exhortation from their abbot; listen to a spiritual reading (often a chapter from “The Rule of St. Benedict”); deliberate and vote on the important material and spiritual questions that arise in a monastery, such as who should be the abbot, whether to welcome a young monk as a permanent member of the community through solemn profession, and how best to structure their lives to promote God’s purpose.

Calling upon the hallowed name of the Lord

Jesus poses a problem when He instructs us to pray to the Father with the words “hallowed be Thy name” (Matthew 6:9). Many Psalms exhort the faithful to praise or call upon the name of the LORD (Psalm 113:1; 116:13; 148:13), and others assert that “Our help is in the name of the LORD” (Psalm 124:8). But how can human beings hallow — that is, make holy — the name of the LORD (in Hebrew, YHWH), Who is already, always, and automatically holy, utterly beyond our ability to add to or subtract from, to influence or change?